Give returning people updated information instead of testing whether they kept up from a distance.

Groups often greet a returning person with quizzes disguised as conversation: did you see the change, do you know about the new system, were you following the thread. Whatever was happening, they were doing something else, and the questions turn their absence into a small failure. Catching them up costs a few minutes and returns them to the room as an equal.

If a colleague or a friend is returning this month, write down the four things they missed and hand it over before they have to ask. It takes minutes and saves them a fortnight of quiet guessing.